Iris Publishers_Journal of Textile Science & Fashion Technology (JTSFT)

Increasing Consumer Participation in Textile Disposal Practices: Implications Derived from an Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour on Four Types of Post- Consumer Textile Disposal

Abstract

Consumers decide when, where and how they dispose of their textiles and therefore determine their lifespan, destination and potential of textiles. An extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) that includes personal norm regarding textile recycling; industry awareness regarding the negative issues surrounding the textile industry; and knowledge of textile recycling has been used to explore the drivers of four consumer textile disposal intention categories: incentive and non-incentive-based textile disposal, extending the lifespan of textiles and binning unwanted textiles between household waste. The online survey (n = 491) showed that there is a gap between knowledge on the disposal method, previous behaviour and intention. In addition, it showed that subjective norm, personal norm and industry awareness all have a positive influence on the intention to dispose without incentive, while personal norm and industry awareness have a negative influence on the intention to bin unwanted textiles between household waste. The variables are insignificant predictors of the intention to dispose of textiles in exchange for an incentive and the intention to extend the lifespan of textiles. Besides, the incentive-based textile disposal has the lowest intention score, indicating that current incentives, such as a 10% discount on a subsequent purchase, do not sufficiently stimulate consumers to bring back their unwanted textiles. Based on the findings, some suggestions are made to the textile industry, government organizations and policymakers to strengthen their promotional campaigns and textile disposal methods. Contrary to previous research results, knowledge of textile recycling is not a significant predictor of consumer textile disposal intention. In addition, the results show that perceived behavioral control, one of the original TPB variables, is not a significant predictor of any of the behavioral intentions. This suggests that perceived behavioral control could be excluded from the TPB model in research on textile disposal behaviour.

Keywords: Textile disposal; Textile recycling; Textile waste; Theory of planned behaviour; Consumer behaviour; Recycling intention; Disposal intention; Quantitative research

Abbreviations: TPB: Theory of Planned Behaviour


Introduction

Sustainable clothing consumption and consumer behaviour has been studied by many researchers, but less attention has been given to the last stage in consumer behaviour: the disposal of textile products. For the purpose of this research textiles are defined as clothing (including underwear, swimwear, socks, hats); shoes; leather goods (handbags, belts); bed and bath linen (sheets, duvet covers, pillowcases, blankets, towels, washcloths), mattresses excluded; and decorative textile (e.g., curtains), carpets excluded [1]. ‘Disposal’ refers to getting rid of unwanted textiles at the end of life stage with their current owner, regardless of whether the item is disposed of as waste, for recycling, or reuse [2].

Since 2000, the global clothing production has been doubled [3]. In recent years consumers and the industry have become increasingly aware of the negative issues surrounding the textile industry. Several brands and global retailers started addressing environmental and social challenges, either in their supply chain or in their communication. However, this does not directly tackle the root cause of the textile industry’s wasteful nature: low clothing utilization and low rates of post-consumer recycling. The textile industry only recycles 13 percent of their total material input. Most of this is downcycled into insulation material, wiping cloths, and mattress stuffing, all of which are very difficult to reuse, thus creating the material’s final usage. Furthermore, the industry recycles less than 1 percent of the total material input used to produce clothing in order to create new clothing [3]. The sum of yearly discarded textiles in the European Union is 2.29 billion kilograms [4].

Consumers decide when, where, and how they dispose of their textiles, and therefore determine their lifespan, destination, and potential. Currently, across Europe, it is estimated that consumers dispose between 80 and 85 percent of their unwanted textiles between regular household waste, resulting in incineration or landfilling [5]. This is causing environmental problems, increased carbon emissions, monetary and other losses for themselves and the industry.

Laitala K [2] stated in her synthesis of research results on consumers’ clothing disposal behaviour between 1980 and 2013, that the majority of the studies concentrated on disposal destinations and motivations behind the selection of specific disposal methods, followed by demographics. Fewer studies have been conducted with a focus on the reasons behind textile disposal. The studies within these categories mainly focus on factors like policy change, interest in fashion, sustainable consumption, emotional value, the accessibility of disposal methods, or a combination between them [2]. The intention to engage in textile disposal behaviour is not part of the four identified research topics identified in the research synthesis. Besides, multiple studies left out male respondents and the root cause of textile waste: the binning of textiles. Additionally, none of the studies used consumer experiments. More importantly, most of the research conducted on this topic occurred before or during the rise of the fast fashion industry and the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013.

Morgan LR, et al. [6] argued that the unawareness of the need for clothing recycling is thought to be a result of lack of media coverage. Four years after their research, sparked by the Rana Plaza disaster, international attention and media coverage increased. Brands and retailers pledged to change their way of working, major global retailers implemented take-back schemes and created collections made from organic, sustainable or recycled materials. Hereby we could argue that consumers should be more aware and more informed about the environmental and social impact of clothing manufacturing and disposal, than during most of the research conducted on textile disposal. Consumers should consequently be more aware of the need for clothing recycling.

The present study will try to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings by taking the whole range of disposal methods into account, questioning males and females from all age categories and concentrating on multiple disposal motivations. As behavioral intention is the immediate precedent of the actual behaviour, we will use the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as a starting point. The intention to engage in textile disposal can be studied and measured through a survey and used as a predictor for the actual textile disposal behaviour. Besides, to make the disposal of textiles more tangible, we included a picture scenario into the survey.

The Theory of Planned Behaviour

The theory of planned behaviour (TPB)

TPB provides a theoretical framework to predict an individual’s intention to engage in a certain behaviour over which they are able to exert self-control [7]. It posits that individual behaviour is driven by behavioral intentions. Therefore, it is assumed that behavioral intention is the immediate precedent of that behaviour. The stronger the intention, the more likely the behaviour of interest will be executed. TPB distinguishes between three types of beliefs: behavioral, normative and control. Where behavioral beliefs refer to attitude; normative beliefs refer to a person’s perception of the social and subjective norms surrounding the behaviour of interest; and control beliefs refer to an individual’s perception of factors that may ease or obstruct the degree to which they have control over the execution of the behaviour of interest. These three believes are the key determinants of behavioral intention (Figure 1).

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